Hi 



or as evidence of revei'sion is an open question. If we accept the 

 doctrine that Nature's efforts are constantly exerted in the direction 

 of duality — a separation of sexes — then the latter theory is not im- 

 probable ; but if we look upon ohtusilobata as a sport — an effort on 

 the part of one species to break up into other species through vari- 

 etal transitions — then it is not impossible that it may yet become so 

 firmly fixed in its habit as to demand recognition as a good variety, 



although its present status as such has long been determined ad- 

 versely. * 



Medford, Mass., Sept., 1881. 



103. New or Little-Known Ferns f the United States. No, 11. 



By D. CT^ATON^. 



35. WooDSiA Mexicana, Fee. — '-Fronds lanceolate; pinnules 

 (pinnae) sub-opposite, crenate, short-stalked, very obtuse, smooth ; 

 stalk and rachis sraoothish : sori near the maro;in, broad, confluent : 

 receptacle dot-like, scales four, laciniated, narrow, divided at the end 

 into articulated hairs; sporangia nearly sessile ; ring i8-jointed; 

 spores oval." yme Mem. p. 66, t, 26, f. 3. 



This fern is not recognized in the Synopsis Filicum, andFournier 

 has referred it to W. mollis^ which is a larger and much more rigid 

 fern, and has the involucre at first sub-globose, and enclosing the sori. 

 The true W, Mexicana has the involucre cleft almost to the base into 

 3 to 5 segments, and these divided half-way down or more into a few 

 slender articulated filaments, much as in W. Oregana^ but on the 

 whole decidedly more conspicuous. The fronds vary from 3 to 8 

 inches long, and might easily pass for W. obtusa, but for the involucre. 

 The segments of the frond are finely but rather deeply toothed, and 

 the teeth end in delicate and semi-transparent tips which are ciliated 

 in the young fronds. When the fronds are mature this ciliation mostly 

 disappears, and the involucre is lost, and then it becomes difficult to 

 -^"Snguish the. fronds from those of fF. Orega?ia on one side, and 



W. 



W. 



J 7 f 



near San Luis Potosi, Mexico ; Dr. Palmer's plants from Coahuila ; 

 Mr. George R. Vasey's (son of Dr. Vasey, of the Agricultural De- 

 partment, Washington) from Organ Mts., New Mexico (just re- 

 ceived); Rev. E. L, Greene's No. 430, from Pinos Altos Mts., 'and 

 Mr. Rusby's New Mexican fern distributed as W, Oregana, van' To 

 these I venture to add Mr. Charles Wright's No. 2,120, collected in 

 New Mexico thirty years ago, and referred to W, obtusa in the Botany 

 of the Mexican Boundary. 



104. White-fruited Mitchella repens, L.— I have received 



specimens of a white-berried form of this plant from Dr. Chas. At- 

 wood of Moravia, Cayuga Co., New York. Dr. Atwood writes that 

 It was abundant over a few square feet, and that no red berries were 

 found within the area occupied by the plants with white ones. This 

 variation has also been noticed at Canaan, Conn'., and recorded in the 



Bulletin. See Vol. iii, p. 43. 



<V.7tu;^4^ Qr. ' - " --.U7^. i'^^ N. L. Brixton. 



